Stepping into the home of former Bexar County Judge Karen Crouch, I'm met by a towering 14-foot Christmas tree with more than 300 ornaments dangling from its limbs. It stares me down like a Transformer. Grinch be warned: you're gonna have to make a few trips. Crouch, who's running for the 166th District Court, sits on the far end of a long couch wearing a bright red shirt. Her hair is in a loose ponytail and black-rimmed glasses rest comfortably on her head. I pass a hallway table populated with several fotos y recuerdos and a statue of an old Saint Nick holding a sign: “Welcome.” A row of embroidered stockings line her chimney mantel and an empty chair, placed to her right, awaits me.
How are you feeling? I ask.
“Better,” she says with the glow of gratitude. “A little stronger everyday,”
A Spider-Man blanket is draped over her legs. Her black shoes – which look like ballet slippers – peek out from under it like two sleepy puppies.
On October 13, Crouch was involved in a car accident in Vermont that took the life of her sister-in-law, Zyra Flores, and left Crouch seriously injured. Tonight, although she's in excellent spirits, her energy seems measured. Crouch and I briefly crossed paths two years ago at a charity dinner. There's something different about the woman who now sits before me.
“The accident has made me think about how your life can change in an instant,” she says in a fixed rhythm that suggests that her words are hand-picked. “ ... How precious every day is in terms of the relationships you have with people and your family and the things you do on a day-to-day basis.”
She offers to tell me about that night.
“I was at a Pepperdine Law School seminar and I was driving back to the hotel, and the drunk driver began passing cars and then went all the way over to the shoulder ... came back and hit me head on.”
Crouch's car spun into a fire-station parking lot, taking out a flagpole and smashing a granite statue. The front end of her rental car was “non-existent.” Racing with adrenaline, she remembers getting out of the vehicle to take her sister-in-law's vital signs.
“There were none,” she recalls. “The fireman came up to me. I asked him 'Can I use your phone to call my husband?' I couldn't dial. I told him the number and called my husband here in Texas.”
The message every spouse dreads came next.
“'Z and I have been in a major accident. Z has no vitals right now – none. They're probably gonna take me to the hospital.' Click. That's it.”
Crouch was taken in an ambulance to a hospital in nearby Dartmouth where she says reporters tried to get into the emergency room.
When she was able, she flew back home “like a sack of potatoes.”
She says the experience also made her realize she “wouldn't be very good in jail or confinement.
“'Cause I Iike to go, go, go.”
Crouch, now 51, served in County Court at Law 8 for 16 years, until she was defeated by Liza Rodriguez in the 2010 primary. Although injuries to her knee and wrist will take time to heal, she's looking forward to block-walking with supporters – although, sadly, minus one.
“Zyra was really wanting me to run again. My sister-in-law was one of my biggest cheerleaders.”
"I'm good at the ground game,” she adds. “Block-walking's gonna be good for me.”
Gerald Flores, her husband of 12 years, gives me a tour of their Christmas tree of pop-culture ornaments: Obama, R2-D2, Harry Potter, Sponge Bob ... the list goes on.
Crouch points to one that says “Be naughty and save Santa a trip.” Her daughter's favorite.
Flores and Crouch have three school-age children, which is why, Crouch says, the cases that really pulled her heart strings involved children.
“Children should not be in the middle of adult fights, but some adults are not grown-up enough to realize that,” she says.
She describes her campaign as “disciplined, organized, strategic, thorough, and 'don't-leave-any-stones-unturned.'” I ask if there's anything in her life that she doesn't exercise that control over.
“Oh, sure. My room.”
After the couple share some of their favorite photographs with me – of their family and of the highlights of their life together – I find I admire their old-fashioned enthusiasm for the holidays and their decision to set a joyful example for their children despite unexpected hardship and personal loss.
On the road to recovery, Crouch has her eye on regaining a place at the courthouse.
It seems that's what Zyra would have wanted.
